Opinion: 2017 was a good year for the country and for President Trump

by Boris Epshteyn, Chief Political Analyst

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EDITOR'S NOTE: Boris Epshteyn formerly served as a Senior Advisor to the Trump Campaign and served in the White House as Special Assistant to The President and Assistant Communications Director for Surrogate Operations.

WASHINGTON (Sinclair Broadcast Group) - As a year comes to an end, it is always a good time to reflect on the past year and to look ahead.

If you remember, following then-candidate Donald Trump’s victory there were many who predicted that the United States would fall into chaos in his first year as President, the economy would collapse and the world would be less safe.

In fact, the opposite has occurred.

The American economy has boomed this past year. The U.S/ stock market hit over 60 record highs, GDP achieved 3 percent growth for two quarters in a row and unemployment hit 17-year lows.

The year ended with the president signing a tax reform package that will provide over $5 trillion in tax cuts to the American people.

On national security, this administration has put ISIS on the run. ISIS has been driven out of both of their capitals, Raqqa and Mosul, in the last year. On Inauguration Day, ISIS had an estimated 35,000 fighters occupying approximately 17,500 square miles in Iraq and Syria. Now, the U.S. military estimates there are less than 1,000 fighters occupying just about 1,900 square miles.

On trade, the Trump administration is renegotiating NAFTA and other agreements in order to balance American trade relationships around the world.

Here’s the bottom line: people may not agree with everything the President says or does but when you look at the results, one has to say that 2017 was a very successful year for Donald Trump. There is a lot of reason for optimism in 2018, as well. The president is going to focus on infrastructure this year, which will strengthen our United States even more. Happy New Year!